Sirius Star
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The Sirius Star is an oil tanker operated by the shipping company Vela International Marine Ltd. , a subsidiary of the Saudi Arabian state oil company Saudi Aramco , and sails under the Liberian flag. The VLCC (Very Large Crude Carrier) tanker class is 330 m long, has a deadweight of 318,000 tons and can load up to two million barrels of oil. It was completed in March 2008 by the South Korean shipbuilding company Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co., Ltd (DSME) .
kidnapping
On November 15, 2008, at 7:23 a.m. UTC , the tanker with a cargo of crude oil worth about 100 million euros and a crew of 25 on board at 5 ° S , 49 ° E , about 850 kilometers east of the Kenyan port city of Mombasa from Somali Pirates captured (see also piracy off the coast of Somalia ).
The Sirius Star was the largest ship to be hijacked until November 2008. She was supposed to go to the USA via Cape Agulhas . The captain of the tanker and a technical officer were Poles , one of the two British on board was the chief engineer , the other the ship's second officer . The other crew members were from Saudi Arabia , Croatia and the Philippines . On the night of November 18, 2008, the hijacked ship anchored off the town of Harardheere in the de facto autonomous region of Puntland in northeast Somalia .
On November 18, 2008, there were initial talks between the pirates and the owner of the oil tanker. A man who claims to be one of the pirates told the Arab television station Al Jazeera on November 19, 2008 that the kidnappers of the super tanker had demanded a ransom. However, he did not provide any information on the amount of the claim. On the same day, a claim of 250 million euros, then 25 million euros was rumored. On November 24, 2008, the ransom demand was said to have been lowered to US $ 15 million after Somali Vice Prime Minister Ahmed Abdulsalam , who belongs to the same ethnic group as the pirates, started negotiations with them.
After threats from Islamist ICU militias to liberate the ship because it came from a Muslim country, the pirates left the anchorage off Haradhere “towards the high seas” in the hijacked tanker on November 24, 2008.
The NATO made no attempt to free the crew. The reason given was that the warships stationed in the region would not intervene outside the area they patrolled.
The hijackers released the ship on January 9, 2009. The leader of the pirates in Harardheere, Mohamed Said, told the AFP news agency by phone: “All of our people have now left the Sirius Star. The ship is free. The crew is free. ”According to the Reuters news agency , a ransom of $ 3 million has been paid. An official from the Saudi oil ministry confirmed the clearance, citing the state-owned oil company Saudi Aramco. Aramco did not comment on the payment of a ransom.
According to a pirate who was not involved in the capture, a boat with eight pirates on board overturned in the storm off Somalia while returning from the Sirius Star and sank. Five pirates drowned with their prey. After several hours, three pirates reached the shore, swimming. Their ransom share was also lost.
Web links
- Det Norske Veritas : Sirius Star
- Coordination marée noire: Sirius Star
- The Daily Telegraph : Hijacked ship anchors off Somali coast (report with video, English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Det Norske Veritas (2008): Sirius Star ( Memento of February 14, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (accessed November 19, 2008)
- ↑ a b no author details (August 28, 2008). Sirius Star Launching Ceremony. ( Memento of December 19, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Internet pages of Vela International . (accessed November 19, 2008)
- ↑ no author details (November 17, 2008). Factbox-Hijacked tanker Sirius Star, one of world's newest. Reuters (accessed November 19, 2008)
- ↑ no author details (November 18, 2008). Pirates capture Saudi oil tanker. BBC News (accessed November 19, 2008)
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^ Piotr Paszkowski * (November 18, 2008). Hijacking of a tanker on the Kenyan coast. Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland (accessed November 19, 2008)
* In November 2008, Paszkowski is the press spokesman for the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs - ↑ Sophie Tedmanson (19 November 2008). Somali pirates demand ransom for Sirius Star. Times Online (accessed November 19, 2008)
- ^ Alaric Nightingale (November 18, 2008). Hijacked oil tanker anchored off 'pirate stronghold'. Bloomberg News (accessed November 19, 2008)
- ↑ AP / Reuters / bre (November 18, 2008). Jackpot for pirates. ( Memento from February 4, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Süddeutsche Zeitung (accessed November 19, 2008)
- ^ "Times Online & Catherine Philp" (November 18, 2008). Pirates make contact with the owner of the oil supertanker. Times Online (accessed November 19, 2008)
- ↑ AFP / AP / dpa / akh (November 19, 2008). Pirates demand ransom. ( Memento from April 6, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Süddeutsche Zeitung (accessed November 19, 2008)
- ↑ Marc Engelhardt (November 19, 2008). Business with piracy ( Memento from December 7, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Tagesschau (ARD) (accessed November 19, 2008)
- ↑ ala / AFP (November 19, 2008). Supertanker hijackers demand a ransom of 25 million euros. Spiegel Online (accessed November 20, 2008)
- ↑ dpa (November 24, 2008). Fear of Islamists: Pirates flee with the supertanker Freenet AG (accessed November 25, 2008)
- ↑ sda / dpa / afp / reuters (November 24, 2008). Pirates take off with captured oil tanker "Sirius Star." NZZ (accessed November 24, 2008)
- ↑ jdl / dpa / Reuters / AP (November 18, 2008). The pirates hit the jackpot. Spiegel Online (accessed November 19, 2008)
- ↑ Mohammed Ibrahim, Graham Bowley (January 10, 2009). Pirates Say They Freed Saudi Tanker for $ 3 Million. The New York Times (accessed January 10, 2009)
- ↑ no author information (January 9, 2009). Somali pirates release super tanker Sirius Star. AFP (accessed January 9, 2009)
- ↑ jdl / AFP / dpa (January 9, 2009). Captured supertanker leaves pirate base. Spiegel Online (accessed January 9, 2009)
- ↑ dpa (January 9, 2009). Somali pirates release captured Saudi super-oil tankers. ( Memento from January 14, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Süddeutsche Zeitung (accessed January 9, 2009)
- ↑ uq / AP / Reuters (January 10, 2009). Supertanker hijacking, pirates drowning with the millions Focus Online (accessed January 10, 2009)